Presently, when a consumer wishes to purchase a new fragrance in a perfumery, department store, pharmacy, duty-free shop or the like, the consumer is usually provided with a tester bottle of the particular fragrance, from which the consumer usually sprays a small amount on her/his hand or arm and then, after rubbing same into her/his skin, smells the area of the fragrance to determine if it is desirable and is compatible with that person's skin. Often after interacting with the skin, the customer may determine that the fragrance does not suit him/her. When presented with a choice, which presently is a very substantial choice in view of the myriad of different fragrances both old and new on the market from the various cosmetic and fashion companies, the present testing procedure is somewhat cumbersome, is confusing and is generally not “user-friendly”. For example, if a consumer is presented with five new fragrances to test, after spraying, or otherwise applying all of them onto different parts of his/her hand and/or arm, the consumer usually does not recall which fragrance spot corresponds to which tester bottle, i.e. is confused, making the process of choosing very difficult.
To address this problem, many fragrance producers provide fragrance-strips with their logo or brand name, onto which is applied the new fragrance to be evaluated by the consumer. In this way the consumer is able to identify the, for example, five new fragrances he/she wishes to test, each being applied onto a different logo or brand-identified strip, thereby making the choice process simpler. However, this solution to the problem is not ideal. It is well known that the interaction between the fragrance and a person's skin differs from person to person, so often a pleasant fragrance on a fragrance-strip becomes less pleasant when the same fragrance is applied to the skin of one person, whereas for another person the fragrance remains pleasant.
Accordingly, in view of the above drawbacks of the fragrance testers currently in use, which have been in use for many years, there has been a long-felt need to provide the consumer with a fragrance tester that will both permit the direct application of the fragrance onto the skin and provide definite logo and/or brand name and/or promotional slogan and/or picture or visual image identification for each different fragrance applied onto the skin of the consumer wishing to test a number of fragrances at the same time, thereby making an informed choice of which is the most desirable fragrance for that particular consumer both in terms of the fragrance itself and the compatibility thereof with the skin.
As will be detailed hereinbelow, a preferred device for the purposes of the new fragrance tester of the present invention is one based on the well-known ink stamp devices, generally used in offices worldwide for stamping dates, addresses, short messages, and the like onto incoming mail, or onto outgoing mail. None of these stamp devices has been employed for the specific purpose of fragrance testing in accordance with the present invention. Likewise, none have been structurally and/or functionally modified for the purpose of fragrance testing. In accordance with the present invention, any of the known ink stamp devices may be modified to render them to be fragrance testers of the invention. Examples of such known ink stamp devices are those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,432,281 and 4,852,489, and European Patent No. EP 0803372, which describes the well-known self-inking stamping devices in widespread use worldwide, as well as the various self-inking devices widely marketed by, for example, companies like Trodat and M & R Marking. These all have a spring operated mechanism which enables the invertible stamp carrying platen to be in contact with the ink pad holder when the device is not in use and when the user applies downward pressure from the top and/or sides of the device, the stamp carrying platen is inverted, moved downwards and onto the surface of the paper, envelope or the like, onto which it prints the stamp carried by the platen. When released the stamp carrying platen re-inverts to its resting position, is drawn back into the device where it is brought into contact with the ink pad, where it is re-inked to render it ready for the next stamping operation. In many of these devices there is now provided a removable ink pad tray which is inserted/removed from the device for the purpose of replenishing the ink supply when necessary. The contents of the above noted patents as well as the readily apparent components of the commercially available self-inking ink stamp devices from companies such as Trodat and M & R Marking, are included herein by way of reference, particularly as concerns the basic mechanisms of these devices as used in the fragrance testers of the present invention.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a fragrance tester which overcomes the drawbacks of the current fragrance testers. Particularly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a fragrance tester adapted for applying onto a person's skin a sample of the fragrance to be tested and applying an identifying logo or brand name of the fragrance being tested.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method of fragrance testing whereby a sample of the fragrance to be tested is applied to the person's skin together with an identifying logo or brand name of the fragrance in proximity to the fragrance sample.
These and other objects of the present invention will be described in greater detail in the non-limiting description of the present invention hereunder.